Adolescent Nutrition Defined

Should I get nutritional advice from a pediatrician or a dietician?

A pediatrician will give general nutrition information, and my understanding is that it's from a time management stance. A doctor just doesn't have the time to sit down with these kids and find out all the details that we do. We dieticians do a lot of more problem solving and setting up for a lifetime. The pediatricians, unfortunately, don't have the time to do that, nor the training.

Where can I get nutritional information?

They can go to their doctor, they usually have some nutrition information there and your doctor can also refer you to a registered dietician. Registered dieticians are looked at as the nutritional experts. Other than the nutritional scientists, we are the only ones that are professionally trained in nutrition. They can also go to a couple of websites. Eatright.org is a great website and Mypyramid.com provides great nutritional information as well as far as how much energy our kids need and where to get different foods.

Do all children grow at the same rate?

Children do not grow at the same rate. When we are infants, our weight triples within the first year. After that our rate of growth slows, but it is very dependent upon age.

Do all children gain weight at the same rate?

Children do not, again, gain weight at the same rate. Usually by, I would say, in the three to eleven year-old ages, there's maybe about five pounds a year increase and four inches in growth. By the time adolescence comes around, the teenagers will hit their growth spurt and they'll gain about six pounds in six months, and they'll gain about one to two inches every six months.